Watch-regulator.



No. 635,760. Patented Oct. 3|, I899. 0. F. ENGWALL.

WATCH REGULATOR.

(Application filed. June 7, 1897,.)

Wmasea 35 UNITED STATES PATENT Caries.

OSCAR F. ENGIVALL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR CF TIVO-THIRDS TO CHARLES D. PEACOCK, JR., AND AXEL BONDE, OF SAME PLACE.

WATCH-REG U LATO E 2.

SIECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 635,760, dated O tobe 31, 1899.

Application filed June '7, 1897.

T0 aZZ whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, OSCAR F. ENGWALL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Regulating Time pieces, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

My invention relates to means for gaging the distance and direction in which to move the regulator of a timepiece in order to cause it to run at a certain increase or decrease of speed.

The object of my invention is to provide improved means for causing the regulator to automatically move in unison with the canu on-pinion or with the min ute-han d when correcting a variation or resetting the hands, whereby the regulator will be automatically moved in the proper direction a distance proportionate to the number of minutes or seeonds the hand is moved in resetting it.

WVith these ends in view my invention consists in certain features of novelty in the construction, combination, and arrangement of parts by which the said objects and certain other objects hereinafter appearing are attained, all as fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the said drawings, Figure 1 is a face view of a watch, partially broken away, showing my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a broken View of the reverse side thereof. Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view taken on the line 3 3, Fig. 1, showing the detachable pinion elevated; and Fig. t is a similar view showing the detachable pinion lowered.

1 represents the shiftable pinion of the ordinary setting mechanism of a stem-winding watch, which pinion is in permanent gear or mesh with the winding and setting stem 2 by the usual or any setting mechanism and is carried in one end of the oscillatory lever or arm 3, which when the setting attachment 4 is pulled out in the ordinary way carries the pinion 1 into engagement with the idle gear 5, carrying the usual pinion 6, engaging with the cannon-pinion 7 on the arbor of the minute-hand 8 and at the same time disconnects Serial No. 639,690. (No model.)

the winding-stem from the winding-arbor of the mainspring. All of this mechanism may be of the usual or any suitable construction.

Secured to the under side of the cannonpinion '7 or to the arbor of the minute-hand 8 is a spur wheel or gear 9, and secured to a shaft 10 is a similar spur or gear wheel 11, while located between these two spur-wheels 9 11 is a transmitting gear or spur 12, which is adapted to mesh with both, so that the movement of the cannon-pinion or of the minute-hand 8 will be communicated to the shaft 10. The other end of this shaft 10, as shown in Fig. 2, is provided with a small spur or pinion 13, located under the coekbridge 14: and I engaging with a toothed segment 15, pivoted at 16 and being attached by swivel 17 to the regulator-lever 18. It will thus be seen that when the pinion or transmitting-gear 2 is in engagement with both spur-wheels 9 11 the movement of the minute-hand or of the cannon-pinion will be communicated to the spur or pinion 13, and consequently to the regulator, and these parts are so proportioned and arranged that the movement of the minute-hand 8 a certain distance will impart a proportional movement to the regulator. In other words, if the timepiece should be set exactly right and its time noted at the expiration of seven days thereafter, or at the end of any other given time, and when noted found to be, say, ii ve minutes fast,it would simply be necessary to set the minute-hand back five minutes, and this movement would also move the regulator the requisite distance and in the proper direction to make the timepiece run five min utes slower in the next seven days than in the previous seven days, providing the time gained in the previous seven days was accurately five minutes and the distance which the hand was set back was accurately live minutes; but of course in practice it would be impossible to do this with absolute accuracy and certainty, for in resetting the hand it might be moved a second or more too far one way or the other. This variation, however, will decrease each time the watch or timepiece is set, until finally the variation will be reduced to such a small fraction of a minute that the watch would be practically correct and run for a long period of time without material variation.

The hands of the timepiece are of course set by means of the setting-stein when the motion-transmitting pinion 1 is thrown into gear with the gear-wheel 5 in the ordinary way, and when this is done the movement of the regulator is of course produced automatically through the connections already described, and it is produced without the necessity of opening the timepiece or of exercising any care as to the direction in which it is being moved, it simply being necessary to turn the hands backward or forward to the correct time and the movement of the regulator will follow.

It is of course apparent that the regulator cannot at all times be in operative connection with the cannoirpinion or the minute-hand and that the construction must be such that this operative connection may be established only at such times as it maybe desired to correct the variation due to an increase or decrease of speed in the running of the timepiece. 1 therefore mount the transmitting pinion or spur 12 upon a movable connection, such as a spring-arm 19, secured at one end by a screw or other device 20 and having the pinion 12 journaled in its other end, the tendency of the spring 19 being to hold the pinion 12 down into mesh with both spur-wheels 9 11. One end of the arm 19 is provided with a projection 21, preferably beveled on its under side, as shown in Figs. 3 and at, and arranged opposite this projection is a slide or wedge 22, guided between studs and havin a hook 2iwhereb t it ma 1 be )ushed back and forth from a point outside of the watch-casing. When the slide is pushed inwardly, it engages under the projection 21 and lifts the pinion 12 out of engagement with at least one of the spur-wheels 9 11, preferably the spur-wheel 9.

In order to guard against damage resulting from failure to push the slide 22 in and throw the regulator out of gear with the minutearbor, it is desirable that some suitable mechanism be employed forautomaticallyforcing the slide 22 inward when the setting-lever t is returned to its normal position, throwing the pinion 1 out of gear with the pinion 5. A simple attachment for this purpose is shown in Fig. 1 and consists of a bar a, set into the plate of the watchworlzs and having one end connected by pinand-slot joint b to one end of the lever 3, while the other end of the bar a is wedge-shaped and engages with a pin or stud c, projecting upwardly from the slide 22, so that if the slide 22 should be in its outer position when the lever 3 forces the bar (0 toward the slide 22 the latter will be returned to its inward position by the wedge engaging with the stud 0, thus guarding against the hand-arbor remaining in gear with the regulater after the setting mechanism has been thrown out of gear. When it is desired to correct the regulator, the setting attachment a is pulled out to throw the cannon-pinion into gear with the setting-stein 2, and the slide or wedge 22 is pulled out to permit the pinion 12 to descend into engagement with the spurs J 11. She hands and regulator may then be moved by one and the same operation or by power applied through the setting and winding stem 2, the latter by the same movement having previously been disconnected from the winding-arbor of the mainspring, as usual.

Having thus described my invention what I claim new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A timepiece having in combination a regulator for controlling its speed; the handarbor wheel; a settingstcm; a disengageable gear connection between said regulator and hand-arbor wheel; a movable yoke connection between said setting-stein and hand-arbor wheel and means having operative connection with thesaid movable yoke connection and disengageable gear for automatically disengaging the latter from the hand-arbor wheel when the said movable yoke connection is disconnected from the hand arbor wheel, substantially as set forth.

2. A timepiece having in combination a regulator for controlling its speed; the handarbor wheel; a setting-stein; a disengageable gear for connecting said regulator with said hand-arbor wheel; a perpendicularly-dellectable spring carrying said gear; and a slide accessible from the exterior of the timepiece having its inner end adapted to engage under and lift said spring, substantially as set forth.

3. A timepiece having in combination a regulator for controlling its speed; the handarbor wheel; a setting-stem; a gear for connecting said regulator with said hand-arbor wheel; a spring carrying said gear; a slide for lifting said gear from the hand-arbor wheel; a movable yoke connection between said setting-stein and hand-arbor wheel and a wedge connected with said movable yoke connection and having operative engagement with said slide for causing the latter to disengage said gear, substantially as set forth.

OSCAR F. ENGWALL. "Witnesses:

F. A. HOPKINS, EDNA B. J onnson. 

